On March 19, 2024, the First Civil Court of the Specialized Circuit for Land Restitution of Cali ruled in favor of the collective territory and the families of the Emberá Chamí Reservation of the Garrapatas River Canyon.
The sentence orders the delivery of 14,334 hectares to 330 families from 11 indigenous communities of Sipí (Chocó) and Bolívar (Valle del Cauca). There are 1,545 victims of the armed conflict who will benefit and their fundamental right to the restitution of ethnic-territorial rights will be guaranteed.
“Families and the collective territory have suffered all types of violence in the midst of the war, they are victims of abandonment due to massive forced displacements, their right to possession, use and enjoyment of the territory and their spiritual relationship with the land were also affected. “It deteriorated,” said Giovani Yule, director of the Land Restitution Unit (URT).
The Land Restitution Unit (URT) presented this lawsuit in December 2020 and it was accepted by the Cali court on February 9, 2021.
The head of the Directorate of Ethnic Affairs (DAE) of the URT, Acxan Duque, indicated that compliance with this sentence will make possible the return of the Embera people, the development of productive projects, food security, education, housing, protection and security.
According to the ruling, the URT, in coordination with the Unit for Comprehensive Attention and Reparation to Victims (UARIV), the Ombudsman’s Office and the Colombian Armed Forces, must guarantee that families return to their territories in conditions of safety and security. dignity.
The Emberá population is located in an area in dispute due to the cultivation of coca and control of illegal laboratories, in addition to being a corridor to the Pacific Ocean for the shipment of illicit drugs and the entry of weapons.
For the judicial authority, there is a progressive dynamic of attacks against the Emberá, actions of paramilitary groups, drug trafficking, guerrillas and criminal gangs, which have forced them to move and live confined in different regions of the country such as Cali and Bogotá.
Since June 2023, almost all the members of the 330 families that make up the Resguardo, beneficiary of the ruling, have been displaced in El Dovio (Valle del Cauca) waiting for the State to repair them.
The sentence also orders the National Army to carry out a public act of contrition and present an official apology, on behalf of the Colombian State, for the abandonment and confinement suffered by the communities of the Resguardo.
Likewise, they must refrain from carrying out military actions in the Emberá territory, which imply imminent danger to the integrity of the indigenous people, forcing them to respect and apply the Principle of Prevention and Precaution.
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